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Equipment Upgrade setup and tuning price?

02-05-2013, 06:23 PM

Hey guys I recently was commissioned to find and decide on an all new live stage gear. Also I set it up and tuned the system. All gear included new board,mains,subs,in ear monitors and included recording software. I am also teaching someone to run it all before I depart. I have over 10 years touring experience and a degree in music business and production. I have recorded bands prior to this but have never done anything like this and have not a clue what to charge these good people? I would so so appreciate anyone with experience in this situation informing me what they themselves have charged for this type of work. Thank you all very much.

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These are always tough questions as "it depends" is the caveat. Did you give any type of quote at all? If you were to give them a bill for 100hrs x 100/hr would they **************** themselves? This is were prior agreements go a long way.

Well they purchased over 10 grand in new gear so I'm thinking 5-7 extra might not kill them. I agree I hated asking this in a forum because it's really all to do with circumstance but I had no idea where else to look. Like the first poster said I believe 90-100 is pretty fair.

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truthfamilyfaith wrote:Well they purchased over 10 grand in new gear so I'm thinking 5-7 extra might not kill them. I agree I hated asking this in a forum because it's really all to do with circumstance but I had no idea where else to look. Like the first poster said I believe 90-100 is pretty fair.

If they spent 10 Grand on equipment, you're going to charge $5000 ($50x100) hours for labor? That is 33% of the project. That doesn't really seem right to me.

Sorry, that you didn't like the answers to your question but 10 grand in real live audio doesn't buy much in equipment. I easily have 4+ just in mics.

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Also true. Although I am far from a beginner you make a good point. It's not like I've been getting paid setting up gear for years. The set up didn't take long it was learning the board and tuning in everyone's in ears. The boards a presonus 24 digital board. So let's mark me experienced but not a problem, how much would you charge?

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I believe this is something you should have discussed with your client, prior to determining your fee. You've really got to be clear with the customer,,, presenting a reasonable and itemized estimate, before proceeding. When you're charging $150./hr as an itemized cost,,, let's say "labour", you might be paying a truck-driver, a couple of grunts doing the heavy lifting, and your supervision out of that $150./hr. Otherwize, you'd have to be doing some very high-tech analysis to charge that kind of fee.

I know that if someone offered to help me understand a console, and spent 40-50 hours doing so, and then told me afterwards I owed him $150./hr,,,,,($7500.),,,,,,,, things would probably deteriorate VERY quickly.from there. Just sayin'

truthfamilyfaith wrote:Also true. Although I am far from a beginner you make a good point. It's not like I've been getting paid setting up gear for years. The set up didn't take long it was learning the board and tuning in everyone's in ears. The boards a presonus 24 digital board. So let's mark me experienced but not a problem, how much would you charge?

I am not going to suggest a dollar amount. I am just going to bring up a couple of points for you to factor into your calculations.

I'm sure you are not a beginner at certain things in the industry but the job you describe in this thread may not be one of them. You spec'd a system for your client that included a digital mixer that you were unable to navagate on and now want the client to pay for you to learn it. Not pro.

I am going to assume that you were tuning monitors for a band . I don't know the size of the band so I will guess at 5-8 people. An experienced sound tech with monitor chops should be able to tune a monitor rig in 1 to 2 hours and then I suppose another 1 to 2 hours for the band to rehearse with the new system.

That's assuming too much I'm afraid. It's for a venue that has different acts in weekly. I also did not volunteer my services saying I know everything as you seem to suspect a "pro" to know. I'll be taking my question to a a forum with less un constructive arrogance. Account deleted.

truthfamilyfaith wrote:That's assuming too much I'm afraid. It's for a venue that has different acts in weekly. I also did not volunteer my services saying I know everything as you seem to suspect a "pro" to know. I'll be taking my question to a a forum with less un constructive arrogance. Account deleted.

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I'm guessin' it's a church so they are used to paying big bucks for stuff . A1 pay hereabouts is $25/hr so I'd be embarrassed to ask for more and I'd not charge for the time spent learning what I already should know. Doesn't sound like he did any high level system design above what an A1 would do?

agedhorse wrote:Disrespectful IMO. Seeing more of this lately in the forum, as well as in my day job. What gives?

More likely it's someone who doesn't have to clue what their doing and think they can milk the cow. Who doesn't put out a quoted price before the project starts? If someone comes back to me expecting $5000 in the end without any prior knowledge, I would tell them to hit the road. Maybe he's charging for the trip to Guitar Center to pick up some of the equipment and shipping/transit times also.

There is definitely some miscommunication on someone's part here. "You mean you weren't helping us out for free???"

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I did some troubleshooting for a small installed system that was having a lot of trouble. The manager wanted me to come down, have a look and then help them pick out a new amp, mixer and speakers. They figured they were toast. We talked a little bit about that on the phone. They liked the peavey setup in the other lounge, the problem was the small EV setup in their other lounge.

Since it was intermittent I just had this feeling it had to be the wiring. Their maintenance guy was there and he did most of the wiring. It was a bit of a rats nest.

We finally traced the problem, due to ruling things out and almost starting from scratch. It took 2.5 hours from walking in the door to when I left. The manager asked how much, I said $100, she said no problem.

She told me she asked the maintenance guy if it was worth it bringing me in, and he said "if Rob never came, we would still have the problem, and now we don't need to replace anything." So that was good to hear.

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StratGuy22 wrote:I did some troubleshooting for a small installed system that was having a lot of trouble. The manager wanted me to come down, have a look and then help them pick out a new amp, mixer and speakers. They figured they were toast. We talked a little bit about that on the phone. They liked the peavey setup in the other lounge, the problem was the small EV setup in their other lounge.

Since it was intermittent I just had this feeling it had to be the wiring. Their maintenance guy was there and he did most of the wiring. It was a bit of a rats nest.

We finally traced the problem, due to ruling things out and almost starting from scratch. It took 2.5 hours from walking in the door to when I left. The manager asked how much, I said $100, she said no problem.

She told me she asked the maintenance guy if it was worth it bringing me in, and he said "if Rob never came, we would still have the problem, and now we don't need to replace anything." So that was good to hear.

So that shakes out to $40/hr, which we both felt was fair.

This is exactly why everything starts with a service call to determine what the problem is.

If it's one of my installations and they are looking to upgrade or expand, I generally do not charge for an estmate assuming the original installation is still itact and servicable.